Andasibe Transportation

By now, it should be blindingly obvious to anyone reading my travel pages that I have a thing for trains! So, it is with great frustration that I report the existence of a functioning passenger train service in Madagascar that I didn't get the chance to road (or should that be 'rail') test!

In the excellent tourist office in the newly renovated train station in Tana (note the consistent theme!), I picked up a postcard advertising a tiny train (La Micheline Viko-Viko) that runs periodically between Tana and Andasibe. If the pictures be believed, it is the weirdest-looking thing: rather like an American-style schoolbus which has had its wheels removed before being painted a surgical white and having a bright red 'cow catcher' attached to the front!

The schedule suggests that this service was running about once a week in July and August, departing one day, and returning the next so that you can overnight. The same train also travels between Tana and Antsirabe - during July and August, this ran about once a month. I don't recall exactly what the price was - by this point I was so frustrated that we'd discovered something so exciting that we couldn't fit into our available time frame that I wasn't retaining detail too well - but it did strike me as being fairly reasonable, especially for an experience so unique.

If I recall, the journey time was about 4 hours (although I would treat any time estimate relating to Malagasy public transport with some caution). I would suggest that you contact the e-mail address or phone number given below to confirm dates/times and prices.
I can't decide whether or not I'd like to hear from you if you are lucky enough to take this train - on balance, I think so, if only to confirm that this is a factor that we should plan around for our next trip to Madagascar!